Portland pilot, passenger killed in small plane crash

A 46-year-old Portland man died Monday afternoon in the crash of a small airplane near Scio.

The Linn County Sheriffs Office said Timothy Dean Carter of Portland and 45-year-old Jeff Earl Kropf of Halsey were killed at about 3:30 p.m. Nov. 26 when the two-seat experimental plane they were riding in broke apart and crashed in a pasture near Highway 226 and Brewster Road, about nine miles east of Albany.

Linn County Undersheriff Bruce Riley said Carter owner the small RV6 plane that was built in 1996 and had a private pilot license. Kropf had a commercial pilot license.

Witnesses told sheriffs deputies that the plane was flying east from Lebanon Municipal Airport, crossing Brewster Road and banking to the left over Highway 226 when part of a wing became separated from the plane and fell onto the highway before the plane crashed.